The Faculty of Life Sciences at Copenhagen University is one of Europe's leading environments in plant science. That reputation is now about to be further increased by the decision to invest DKK 200m (USD 36m) in a new research facility, Copenhagen Plant Science Center. The building of 7,000 square metres at Frederiksberg Campus that will house the centre will be ready in 2015, and by then the Faculty of Life Sciences will undoubtedly be among the world's two or three leading plant science research centres.
The potential applications of plant science in areas like food, medicine and bio-energy are virtually limitless. Two of the projects being undertaken give a flavour of what the new research centre could offer in future plant science applications.
One concerns the food area, specifically a vegetable called cassava which is a widely used staple food in Africa. The problem with cassava is that in its raw state it contains highly toxic cyanide, which makes it dangerous to consume if not prepared or cooked in the proper way. In Copenhagen a "super-cassava" is being developed in collaboration with African researchers, which contains no cyanide and is significantly richer in vitamins. The new cassava species will thus have both health-protective and health-promoting characteristics, to the benefit of thousands of Africans.
The other is in the area of medicine. American scientists have found a compound, called thapsigargin, in a wild carrot that has the ability to target certain types of tumour (prostate cancer, breast cancer) with great accuracy. But in order to have this anti-cancer effect thapsigargin needs to have special proteins attached to it. Unfortunately, the wild carrot is almost impossible to cultivate, and the substance it produces is so complex that it would be colossally expensive to synthesise. So at LIFE, researchers are transferring the relevant biosynthetic apparatus from the carrot to a moss plant that can be used as a surrogate producer of the substance in a way that is both easy to do and relatively cheap.
If you require more information about Copenhagen Plant Science Center, please contact Dean at the Faculty of Life Sciences, Per Holten Andersen at dekan(at)life.ku.dk
Read more about LIFE- Faculty of Life Sciences at http://www.life.ku.dk/English.aspxwww.life.ku.dk/English.aspx or http://www.life.ku.dk/german.aspxwww.life.ku.dk/german.aspx (in German).
